1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to compounds which are guanidinium salts suitable for use in microbicidal compositions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The bactericidal effectiveness of guanidines and salts of guanidine is already well known. A detailed summary may be found in the "Journal of Medicinal Chemistry", Vol. 6 (1963), pages 587 to 595.
German Auslegeschrift 12 49 457 discloses that salts of alkyl diguanidines of the general formula ##STR2## in which R represents an alkyl radical of 8 to 18 carbon atoms and m a number from 2 to 6, may be used as microbicides.
In German Offenlegungsschrift No. 26 47 915, partial reaction products of aliphatic polyamines with guanidizing agents are described. However, one of the problems that have been encountered with these compounds is that strains have developed which have high resistance to them. Thus, the microbicidal effectiveness of these compounds has decreased.
In practical operations, the chlorohexidine derivatives have especially proven their value as gaunidine derivatives. These correspond to the following formula ##STR3##
These compounds, which are sold under the trade name "Chlorohexidine", have excellent bactericidal effectiveness. However, they suffer from the disadvantage that their biological degradation leads to chlorinated aromatic compounds, which resist further biological degradation and are highly toxic and can poison, for example, biological sewage treatment operations. These compounds are expensive to manufacture and their use has up till now been limited to precision disinfection.